Over the decades, many education experts have explored the impact parental involvement has student achievement, but the conclusions arrived at have often been contradictory and controversial, with a clear lack of understanding of what parental involvement actually means and what it implies in the educational context.
Parental involvement largely encompasses a variety of behaviors representative of parents and family members normally channeled towards the betterment of student learning (either in or out of the school context) (Net Industries, 2010, p.1).
Nonetheless, parental involvement varies from family to family and student to student, thereby causing variable levels of effectiveness on student development. Considering the ambiguity of parental involvement analysis and the varied levels of effectiveness on student development, it becomes increasingly important to understand the dynamics related to the concept.
This study seeks to answer this question by first highlighting the views and definitions of the concept, then later, exploring the variable impacts parental influence has on single-parent families, two-parent families and where parental involvement lacks in totality.
Views and Definition of the Concept
Over the years, a majority of research studies done to evaluate the impact parental involvement has on student outcomes have consistently shown a positive relationship between the two (Chen, 2010, p. 1).
These studies have been undertaken with specific parameters such as school drop out and truancy rates in mind because they constitute some of the most notable effects of a lack of parental involvement in student achievement (Congress, 2010, p. 17154).
These factors withstanding, many researchers have now shifted their focus to probe the underlying factors prompting parents to be concerned with their children’s development and why others don’t bother at all (Net Industries, 2010, p.2).
The emphasis has also shifted to the outcome of these two scenarios as well as the kind of parental involvement applied to childhood development; considering many children hail from various types of families (including single-parent families, intact families and the likes).
Comprehensively, three frameworks have been identified as the precursors and effects to these types of variables and each framework has been widely used to highlight the different aspects of the dynamics existing when parental involvement is undertaken in and out of the school context (Tutwiler, 2005, p. 109).
Researchers such as Wendy S. Grolnick (and her partners) (cited in Net Industries, 2010, p.2), in articles published from 1994 -1997 came up with three dimensions encompassing parental involvement and their effects on children motivation and performance by first noting that “Behavioral involvement refers to parents’ public actions representing their interest in their child’s education, such as attending an open house or volunteering at the school” (Net Industries, 2010, p. 4).
Secondly, she and her colleagues note that personal involvement exhibited in parental involvement encompasses personal relationships between the parent and the child (exemplifying the importance of schooling and the importance of education to the future well being of the child) (Net Industries, 2010, p. 4).
Lastly, Wendy notes that parental cognitive involvement is the last facet of parental involvement and it seeks to improve the child’s upbringing by horning his or her competence in skill development and knowledge accumulation (Net Industries, 2010, p. 4).
When Wendy’s analysis is critically analyzed, she advances the theory that parental involvement is bound to affect student achievement levels because it affects their level of motivation, sense of competence and the belief that the power to succeed lies within them.
Another researcher by the name Kathleen Hover and her counterpart Howard Sandler, reiterate previous sentiments that parental involvement is two-faced, in the sense that, it involves home-based and school-based activities (Net Industries, 2010, p. 4).
However, they add that the quality of parental involvement basically involves the parent’s belief on the concept (with regards to their roles and responsibilities) because different parents have different understandings of the roles they have to play as contributors to student achievement viz a viz the roles teachers have to play to achieve the same goal.
According to the theory advanced by Kathleen and Howard, parental involvement affects student performance in the sense that it affects their acquisition of knowledge and skills, in addition to influencing the belief that success actually depends on their empowerment to determine the future and their control to shape their own destinies.
Lastly, another researcher by the name Joyce Epstein, through research studies done in 1995 argued that student achievement revolves around three pillars of influence encompassing the community, parent and school involvements (Net Industries, 2010, p. 5).
She further advances the fact that it is difficult for optimum student success to be realized if all the three pillars do not work collaboratively. In this manner, she equates the input of parental involvement to community and school involvement by explaining that:
“Schools should create greater “overlap” between the school, home, and community through the implementation of activities across six types of involvement: parenting, communication, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaboration with the community.
By implementing activities across all six types of involvement, educators can help improve student achievement and experiences in school” (Net Industries, 2010, p. 6).
Success and Failures of Parental involvement in Single Parent Homes
Research studies highlight that about 60% of all American children born from 1986 onwards are bound to live approximately five years of their lives in a single-parent family setup, while another 30% are bound to live their entire lives in single-parent homes (Adoption Media, 2010, p. 4). These statistics abound, it is important to evaluate the influence parental involvement has on student outcomes in single-parent homes.
Single parent homes have become quite common today than in the past and conventional educational literature shows that children born in such families are more disadvantaged in many areas of childhood development (not only in academic achievement) as compared to children born from intact families.
“This view can be explained by two models of analysis: the family deficit model and the risk and protective factor model” (Adoption Media, 2010, p. 4).
The family deficit model was first used in the 70s and is a strong proponent of the two-parent family setup because it advances the fact that the nuclear family is the ideal family setup for optimum positive parental influence on student academic achievement (Adoption Media, 2010, p. 8).
In this regard, the model notes that children born in nonnuclear families are disadvantaged; merely because they do not enjoy the benefits associated with a nuclear family setup (Adoption Media, 2010, p. 7). This model is, however, blind to the influence socioeconomic factors have on positive childhood academic development because it gives a blanket judgment to children hailing from single and two-parent family setups.
The risk and protective factor model is, however, less judgmental on single-parent families and their impact on student achievement because it notes that both single and two-parent family setups have their advantages and disadvantages.
Even though the model does not consider parental influence in single-family setups as less effective, it notes that there are many risks associated with this type of family setup (when compared to single-parent families) (Adoption Media, 2010, p. 9).
Essentially, this model seeks to solve the shortcomings that the family deficit model fails to note (which include background characteristics or life events which affect the quality of parental influence on student development).
The model also notes that protective factors are those elements which improve parental influence on the academic progression of the students by shielding them from risk factors associated with single-parent families (Adoption Media, 2010, p. 14).
Risk factors are therefore the weaknesses of single parental families while protective factors refer to the strengths of single-parent families, implying that single-parent families can be both a risk and protective factor to the positive influence of parental influence on student academic achievements.
Regardless of the analysis of the above two models, research studies have failed to clearly point out whether it is true to say that parental influence is less effective when positively influencing student achievements (in single-parent family setups), but the fact that students hailing from single-parent families are more exposed to the risks of less effective parental influence, remains undoubted.
Success and Failures of Parental Involvement in Two-Parent Homes
From the analysis of the positive relation, research studies make of two-parent families and student achievement, it is correct to note that parental involvement in two-parent family setups is more preferred to single-parent family setups.
The reason advanced for this view is the fact that students coming from two-parent families are bound to get undivided assistance when doing their homework, get more financial support from both parents, and develop a higher sense of discipline when compared to their counterparts from single families (Bankston, 2002, p. 225).
This leads to a higher level of educational achievement when compared to other children because they find it much easier to connect with their schooling activities than children from single-parent families.
The above analysis is true because the likelihood of both parents totally losing interest in the child’s schoolwork is very low since the child’s academic interests must be harbored by at least one of the parents.
Also, from today’s highly demanding career environment and increasingly competitive economy, most parents often find themselves pressed between a rock and a hard place when they are faced with situations where they have to juggle their work and parental responsibilities.
In this manner, many parents often lose out on some of the most important highlights of their children’s development and this negatively affects both home-based and school-based parental involvement.
However, in intact families, it is much easier for one of the parents to attend to their child’s educational needs and even in more demanding scenarios, the parents may rotate their parental responsibilities, thereby greatly limiting instances where parental involvement is absent in the child’s development.
Also, in intact families, there is more parental control and guidance on the child’s academic development when compared to single-parent families because single parents rarely find the time to spend with their children due to environmental factors and therefore children from intact families grow to be much more responsible and achieve a higher sense of academic achievement (Kane, 2005, p. 161).
From this analysis, we, therefore, see that children from single-parent families are more disadvantaged when compared to their counterparts from intact families.
The situation is however aggravated when there is no parent involvement at all, to a student’s academic development because more resources are needed to enable such students attain higher levels of academic achievement, when compared to their counterparts from both single and intact family setups. This issue is further discussed below.
Resources Needed When no Parent is Involved
Students who totally lack parental involvement in their educational development are usually faced with more challenges than any other type of children. Most of the time, such children fall into depression and are in a more disoriented frame of mind when compared to other students.
In this type of situation, it is essential for guardians to seek counseling services on behalf of the children so that they adapt better to their situation, since in some instances, parental involvement may be impossible or totally unavailable (say, when the parents die, disappear, or such like situations).
Counseling will improve the mental health of such students and enable them to better adapt to their circumstance, thereby gearing them towards the path of academic success (Siddiqui, 2010, p. 237).
Alternatively guardians or concerned individuals may arrange to enroll students who cannot enjoy parental involvement in their education to nonprofit organizations supporting student achievement through financial support. This is important because it is observed that parent involvement also significantly comes with immense financial responsibilities and such students may be disadvantaged in this manner (Horn, 2008, 276).
In situations where a student is orphaned, concerned parties may arrange for such students to be assigned to responsible foster parents who may play the same role as the real parents would (William, 2010, p. 108). However, in such a situation, the concerned parties need to properly evaluate the type of parents they are assigning to the student.
Lastly, concerned parties can offer extra educational support for disadvantaged students, say, through remedial classes or after school programs so that the students get more assistance in any area of difficulty that they may encounter in their learning.
This is important because children who enjoy positive parental involvement have added assistance in undertaking their educational responsibilities and children who lack this benefit may compete favorably if they turn to their teachers instead. However, this will imply more teacher involvement.
Conclusion
Since parental involvement is an integral component to progressive student academic development, this study points out that parental involvement is part of the overall pillars needs for successive academic development (with the other pillars being community and school participation).
However, this study also notes that there are different variables to parental involvement because parental involvement for students coming from two-parent families is more effective than for students coming from single-parent families. However, this assumption is true to the extent that parental involvement is the only variable to positive student development.
This study also points out that students lacking parental involvement at all, may need extra teacher attention, counseling, financial assistance, and a possible substitution of parental roles by foster parents. These factors are emphasized because studies affirm a positive relationship between parental involvement and positive student outcomes.
References
Adoption Media. (2010). Single Parenting and Children Academic Achievement. Web.
Bankston, C. (2002). A Troubled Dream: The Promise and Failure of School Desegregation in Louisiana. Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt University Press.
Chen, X. (2010). Efforts by Public K-8 Schools to Involve Parents in Children’s Education Do School And Parents Agree? New York: DIANE Publishing.
Congress. (2010). Congressional Record. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Horn, T. (2008). Advances in Sport Psychology. New York: Human Kinetics.
Kane. M. (2005). Contemporary Issues in Parenting. New York: Nova Publishers.
Net Industries. (2010). Parental Involvement in Education – Research on Parental Involvement, Effects on Parental Involvement, Obstacles to Parental Involvement, Controversies, Current Issues. Web.
Siddiqui, M. (2010). Guidance & Counselling. New York: APH Publishing.
Tutwiler, S. (2005). Teachers as Collaborative Partners: Working With Diverse Families And Communities. London: Routledge.
William, J. (2010). Parental Involvement and Academic Success. London: Taylor & Francis.